Alan's O'Neill's Build

Alan_H

Yes, I thought the corner trim would help, upon some reflection, and the finished product does look much better than the original walls. They look almost too neat to me. I once built a three story structure with laser cut clapboard walls. There were many windows. Even with bracing there was just so much open area that after staining the walls with AI they went all Ruffles Potato chip on me. Took forever to get them straightened. This wasn't a complaint, but meant to be a re-affirmation of the manual. The wood is soft enough that I can tell that what little warping there is will come right out when the walls are assembled. I'll probably never look at clapboard siding the same way again!

Alan_H

Three of the tower walls are done. The fourth is under weight. I'll be dressing the edges with files or the Tru-Sander as applicable prior to starting the framing and corner trim. My scale lumber supply is shrinking! A sure sign you are accomplishing things.

Alan_H

A little dressing with the file on the door & window openings, and then I added the framing. Note: the walls will curl. I had them under weight for something like 18 hours, and took them out from under, and within a few hours, they had curled. Not severely, in fact a single 1-2-3 block is enough to get them flat again, and I kept one on them as I installed the framing for the doors and windows. After that was finished I wet the back sides with a little alcohol and got them back under the 1-2-3 blocks and some books. I'd recommend keeping them under weights and just taking them out to work on until you are ready to install the corner trim, and when you are ready to "make the box" with the four walls.




I also painted the tower doors and windows, and will allow those to dry over night before chalking and painting them. Pretty routine stuff here, but progress is progress!

KCSTrains

Alan, looking good. Phil

Alan_H

KCSTrains said:

Alan, looking good. Phil

Thanks Phil. I like your color on the addition as well. I hadn't thought to try that myself. Maybe next build!

KKarns

Great progress Alan, looking forward to seeing those walls together.

Alan_H

I've got the tower walls "lumbered up" and the trim attached.



I ran into one small hiccup. When you attach the trim to the left and right walls, make sure the trim strip is even with the rear of the wall. Mine ended up even with the front of the wall, like this:



This makes it difficult to get a flush fit when you make the box. I adjusted the bevels on the front and rear walls, and still couldn't get things just so, so I ended up sanding the back of the left and right walls flush with the trim. Just a few minutes work here. I'll also give the front and read walls a couple of light passes through the True sander to make sure everything is flush when they are fit together.

Note: Be careful adjusting the bevel on the front and rear walls. I did this initially without incident, but after the clapboard was installed and during final adjustment I managed to break the wall on one side at the bottom. Then I broke the broken piece. It went back together just fine and you can't see where it broke, or any imperfections other than a light scorching on the inside of the wall from the language I used when I broke it.

Keep the walls under weight unless you are working on them until you do the tower assembly.

Alan_H

Tower doors and windows are done. They need a final dusting with chalk. On to the O'Neill's signs!

admin

Looks great! I love the combo of wood and laser cut parts. Can't beat it for HO Scale.

Alan_H

Got the sign bases glued up! The signs themselves look interesting. Wonder why there are four of each? (tongue in cheek).

Alan_H

First try! Needs some more chalk but I think I'm happy! This is a good place to knock off for the evening. Tomorrow I'm blackening castings and painting the mailbox. The doors and windows are mounted as well. It's amazing what you can get done when you don't have to work!

Alan_H

Thanks Ed, but at $.25 a swear there's $87,000.00 in the swear jar! Or it feels like there should be. It's all in the Magnifier, and decent tweezers! And light, lots of bright light!

brownbr

The signs turned out just right.

KCSTrains

Alan, good work all around. I particularly like the signs. They turned out well. Phil

Alan_H

Here's everything. Now it's time to blacken some castings and glue the tower sign on.

Robert.G

That's some real nice work you've done !!!

TomMich

Signs turned out Great! Everything looks very nice!

Alan_H

Granddaughter day today so not muck work! I started to blacken the two vent castings for the rear tower wall, then thought what the hell, all the stuff is out, let's just get them all done. I used alcohol on the smaller ones but still have just a few that need touched up. Most were a bit small for the Dremel polishing method, so I used an old T-shirt which worked just fine.

Alan_H

Thanks for all the positive comments guys. It helps!

TomH

Love those signs. The walls look great as well.

Alan_H

Happy Thanksgiving fellow Sierra Westers! Just the wife & daughter and I today. The son, daughter in law & granddaughter will be visiting tomorrow due to rotating family holiday scheduling, so we shifted the turkey dinner to tomorrow. The son is not ready to give up his mom's home cooking just yet. I can relate. We'll still be cooking today so all of tomorrow isn't spent in the kitchen!

I got the tower assembled. The glue is drying. Things to watch out for: The sign had a tendency to curl a little when I glued it to the wall. I clamped it and allowed it to dry overnight. I'm not happy with the vents. I found the epoxy difficult to control with a toothpick. I'd suggest a straight pin to anyone who hasn't done it this way. For the elbow vent, I think I'll revert to my old faithful white glue with a little India Ink mixed in. Epoxy in this application is too unforgiving for me, though to be fair, this was the first time I tried this technique. YMMV. A little file work and some paint will take care of this problem. The top and bottom will require just a little dressing with a file as the two halves got very slightly out of square when assembling, probably from the clamps. You'll note the clamp on one side of the freight door. The thin section here didn't want to snug up to the wall and needed a little persuasion. The freight door frame was dislodged on the left side as you can see. This has been fixed. The fit to the resin base casting is dead nuts on, so I'm happy!

KCSTrains

This is certainly the moment of truth. Looks like all is well and square. Phil

Robert.G

Alan, next time you clamp, put a piece of scrap wood or MDF between the clamp and the surface. Not only will the clamping pressure will be on the entire lenght instead of on just the two clamp ends, but you won,t risk clamp marks on the finished surface. Well done by the way...

Mountaingoat

Great job. Looks fantastic. I also prefer the white glue/I vs epoxy. For me much more workable and forgiving. May take more than one application as it shrinks. Each modeler to his own though. We are not all the same.....Rick

Alan_H

A quick test fit, everything is just sitting, no glue yet. Several other things to do first, but it's nice to see things coming together!

brownbr

No escaping that vise.

admin

Looking fantastic. This is such a rewarding part of the process. Things are beginning to come together!

ALCO

I started boarding the tower yesterday and got 2 1/2 walls done and I’m definitely not going to have enough lumber to finish! How the @#$% did this happen? It’s only page 37! Gotta check my leftovers...

admin

shoot me an email and I will be happy to send some along...

vietnamseabee

You’re a class act, Brett
Terry